Chapter VI: Part 6

'O thou rede Marz armypotente,
That in the trende baye hase made thy throne;
That God arte of bataile and regent,
And rulist all that alone;
To whom I profre precious present,
To the makande my moone
With herte, body and alle myn entente,
. . . . . .
In worshipe of thy reverence
On thyn owen Tewesdaye.'
Sowdone of Babyloyne, ll. 939-953.

[79]

The word _armipotent_ is borrowed from Boccaccio's _armipotente_, in the Teseide, vii. 32. Other similar borrowings occur hereabouts, too numerous for mention. Note that this description of the temple of Mars once belonged to the end of the poem of Anelida, which see.

Let the reader take particular notice that the temple here described (ll. 1982-1994) is merely a _painted_ temple, depicted on one of the walls _inside_ the oratory of Mars. The walls of the other temples had paintings similar to those inside the temple of which the outside is here depicted. Chaucer describes the painted temple as if it were real, which is somewhat confusing. Inconsistent additions were made in revision.

1984. _streit_, narrow; 'la stretta entrata'; Tes. vii. 32.

1985. _vese_ is glossed _impetus_ in the Ellesmere MS., and means 'rush' or 'hurrying blast.' It is allied to M.E. _fesen_, to drive, which is Shakespeare's _pheeze_. Copied from 'salit Impetus amens E foribus'; Theb. vii. 47, 48.

1986. _rese_ = to shake, quake. 'Þe eorðe gon _to-rusien_,' 'the earth gan to shake.'--La[gh]amon, l. 15946. _To resye_, to shake, occurs in Ayenbite of Inwyt, pp. 23, 116. Cf. also--'The tre _aresede_ as hit wold falle'; Seven Sages, ed. Weber, l. 915. A.S. _hrysian_.

1987. 'I suppose the _northern light_ is the aurora borealis, but this phenomenon is so rarely mentioned by mediaeval writers, that it may be questioned whether Chaucer meant anything more than the faint and cold illumination received by reflexion through the door of an apartment fronting the north.' (Marsh.) The fact is, however, that Chaucer here copies Statius, Theb. vii. 40-58; see the translation in the note to l. 2017 below. The 'northern light' seems to be an incorrect rendering of 'aduersum Phoebi iubar'; l. 45.

1990. 'E le porte eran d'eterno diamante'; Teseide, vii. 32. Such is the reading given by Warton. However, the ultimate source is the phrase in Statius--'adamante perenni ... fores'; Theb. vii. 68.

1991. _overthwart_, &c., across and along (i. e. from top to bottom). The same phrase occurs in Rich. Coer de Lion, 2649, in Weber, Met. Romances, ii. 104.

1997, 8. Cf. the Teseide, vii. 33:--

'Videvi l' Ire rosse, come fuoco,
E le Paure pallide in quel loco.'

But Chaucer follows Statius still more closely. Ll. 1195-2012 answer to Theb. vii. 48-53:--

--'caecumque Nefas, Iraeque rubentes,
Exsanguesque Metus, occultisque ensibus astant
Insidiae, geminumque tenens Discordia ferrum.
Innumeris strepit aula minis; tristissima Virtus
Stat medio, laetusque Furor, uultuque cruento
Mars armata sedet.'

1999. Cf. Rom. of the Rose, 7419-20. [80]

2001. See Chaucer's Legend of Hypermnestra.

2003. 'Discordia, _contake_'; Glossary in Reliquiae Antiquae, i. 7.

2004. _chirking_ is used of grating and creaking sounds; and sometimes, of the cry of birds. The Lansd. MS. has _schrikeinge_ (shrieking). See House of Fame, iii. 853 (or 1943). In Batman upon Bartholomè, lib. viii. c. 29, the music of the spheres is attributed to the '_cherkyng_ of the mouing of the circles, and of the roundnes of heauen.' In Chaucer's tr. of Boethius, bk. i. met. 6, it is an adj., and translates _stridens_. Cf. D. 1804, I. 605.

2007. This line contains an allusion to the death of Sisera, Judges iv. But Dr. Koch has pointed out (Essays on Chaucer, Chaucer Soc. iv. 371) that we have here some proof that Chaucer may have altered his first draft of the poem without taking sufficient heed to what he was about. The original line may have stood--

'The sleer of _her husband_ saw I there'--

or something of that kind; for the reason that no suicide has ever yet been known to drive a nail into his own head. That a wife might do so to her husband is _Chaucer's own_ statement; for, in the Cant. Tales, D. 765-770, we find--

'Of latter date, of wives hath he red,
That somme han slayn hir housbondes in hir bed ...
And somme han drive nayles in hir brayn,
Whyl that they slepte, and thus they han hem slayn.'

Of course it may be said that l. 2006 is entirely _independent_ of l. 2007, and I have punctuated the text so as to suit this arrangement; but the suggestion is worth notice.

2011. From Tes. vii. 35:--'Videvi ancora l'allegro Furore.'--Kölbing.

2017. _hoppesteres._ Speght explains this word by pilots (_gubernaculum tenentes_); Tyrwhitt, female dancers (Ital. _ballatrice_). Others explain it _hopposteres_ = _opposteres_ = opposing, hostile, so that _schippes hoppesteres_ = _bellatrices carinae_ (Statius). As, however, it is impossible to suppose that even _opposteres_ without the _h_ can ever have been formed from the verb to _oppose_, the most likely solution is that Chaucer mistook the word _bellatrices_ in Statius (vii. 57) or the corresponding Ital. word _bellatrici_ in the Teseide, vii. 37, for _ballatrices_ or _ballatrici_, which might be supposed to mean 'female dancers'; an expression which would exactly correspond to an M. E. form _hoppesteres_, from the A. S. _hoppestre_, a female dancer. Herodias' daughter is mentioned (in the dative case) as _þære lyðran hoppystran_ (better spelt _hoppestran_) in Ælfric's A. S. Homilies, ed. Thorpe, i. 484. Hence _shippes hoppesteres_ simply means 'dancing ships.' Shakespeare likens the English fleet to 'A city on the inconstant billows _dancing_'; Hen. V. iii. prol. 15. Cf. O. F. _baleresse_, a female dancer, in Godefroy's Dict., s. v. _baleor_. In § 55 of Cl. Ptolomaei Centum Dicta, printed at Ulm in 1641, we are told that Mars is hostile to ships when in the zenith or the [81] eleventh house. '_Incendetur_ autem nauis, si ascendens ab aliqua stella fixa quae ex Martis mixtura sit, affligetur.' So that, if a fixed star co-operated with Mars, the ships were burnt.

The following extract from Lewis' translation of Statius' Thebaid, bk. vii., is of some interest:--

'Beneath the fronting height of Æmus stood
The fane of Mars, encompass'd by a wood.
The mansion, rear'd by more than mortal hands,
On columns fram'd of polish'd iron stands;
The well-compacted walls are plated o'er
With the same metal; just without the door
A thousand Furies frown. The dreadful gleam,
That issues from the sides, reflects the beam
Of adverse Phoebus, and with cheerless light
Saddens the day, and starry host of night.
Well his attendants suit the dreary place;
First frantic Passion, Wrath with redd'ning face,
And Mischief blind from forth the threshold start;
Within lurks pallid Fear with quiv'ring heart,
Discord, a two-edged falchion in her hand,
And Treach'ry, striving to conceal the brand.'

2020. _for al_, notwithstanding. Cf. Piers the Plowman, B. xix. 274.

2021. _infortune of Marte._ 'Tyrwhitt thinks that Chaucer might intend to be satirical in these lines; but the introduction of such apparently undignified incidents arose from the confusion already mentioned of the god of war with the planet to which his name was given, and the influence of which was supposed to produce all the disasters here mentioned. The following extract from the Compost of Ptolemeus gives some of the supposed effects of Mars:--"Under Mars is borne theves and robbers that kepe hye wayes, and do hurte to true men, and nyght-walkers, and quarell-pykers, bosters, mockers, and skoffers, and these men of Mars causeth warre and murther, and batayle; they wyll be gladly _smythes_ or workers of yron, lyght-fyngred, and lyers, gret swerers of othes in vengeable wyse, and a great surmyler and crafty. He is red and angry, with blacke heer, and lytell iyen; he shall be a great walker, and a maker of swordes and knyves, and a sheder of mannes blode, and a fornycatour, and a speker of rybawdry ... and good to be a _barboure_ and a blode-letter, and to drawe tethe, and is peryllous of his handes." The following extract is from an old astrological book of the sixteenth century:--"Mars denoteth men with red faces and the skinne redde, the face round, the eyes yellow, horrible to behold, furious men, cruell, desperate, proude, sedicious, souldiers, captaines, _smythes_, colliers, bakers, alcumistes, armourers, furnishers, _butchers_, chirurgions, _barbers_, sargiants, and hangmen, according as they shal be well or evill disposed."'--Wright. So also in Cornelius Agrippa, De Occulta Philosophia, lib. i. c. 22. [82] Chaucer has 'cruel Mars' in The Man of Lawes Tale, B. 301; and cf. note to A. 1087.

2022. From Statius, Theb. vii. 58:--

'Et uacui currus, protritaque curribus ora.'

2029. For the story of Damocles, see Cicero, Tuscul. 5. 61; cf. Horace, Od. iii. 1. 17. And see Chaucer's tr. of Boethius, bk. iii. pr. 5. 17. Most likely Chaucer got it from Boethius or from the Gesta Romanorum, cap. 143, since the _name_ of Damocles is _omitted_.

2037. _sterres_ (Harl.) Elles. &c. have _certres_ (_sertres_); but this strange reading can hardly be other than a mistake for _sterres_, which is proved to be the right word by the parallel passage in The Man of Lawes Tale, B. 194-6.

2041. In the note to l. 1955, I have quoted part of cap. v. of a work by Albricus. In cap. iii. (De Marte) of the same, we have a description of Mars, which should be compared. I quote all that is material. 'Erat enim eius figura tanquam unius hominis furibundi, in curru sedens, armatus lorica, et caeteris armis offensiuis et defensiuis.... Ante illum uero lupus ouem portans pingebatur, quia illud scilicet animal ab antiquis gentibus ipsi Marti specialiter consecratum est. Iste enim _Mauors_ est, id est _mares uorans_, eo quod bellorum deus a gentibus dictus est.' Chaucer seems to have taken the notion of the wolf devouring a man from this singular etymology of _Mauors_.

In cap. vii. (De Diana) of the same, there is a description of 'Diana, quae et Luna, Proserpina, Hecate nuncupatur.' Cf. l. 2313 below.

2045. 'The names of two figures in geomancy, representing two constellations in heaven. Puella signifieth Mars retrogade, and Rubeus Mars direct.'--Note in Speght's Chaucer. It is obvious that this explanation is wrong as regards 'Mars retrograde' and 'Mars direct,' because a constellation cannot represent a single planet. It happens to be also wrong as regards 'constellations in heaven.' But Speght is correct in the main point, viz., that Puella and Rubeus are 'the names of two figures in geomancy.' Geomancy was described, under the title of 'Divination by Spotting,' in The Saturday Review, Feb. 16, 1889. To form geomantic figures, proceed thus. Take a pencil, and hurriedly jot down on a paper a number of dots in a line, without counting them. Do the same three times more. Now count the dots, to see whether they are odd or even. If the dots in a line are _odd_, put down _one_ dot on another small paper, half-way across it. If they are _even_, put down _two_ dots, one towards each side; arranging the results in four rows, one beneath the other.

_Three_ of the figures thus formed require our attention; the whole number being sixteen. Fig. 1 results from the dots being odd, even, odd, odd. Fig. 2, from even, odd, even, even. Fig. 3, from odd, odd, even, odd. These (as well as the rest of the sixteen figures) are given in Cornelius Agrippa, De Occulta Philosophia, lib. ii. cap. 48: De Figuris Geomanticis. Each 'Figure' had a 'Name,' belonged to an [83] 'Element,' and possessed a 'Planet' and a Zodiacal 'Sign.' Cornelius Agrippa gives our three 'figures' as below.

* * * *
* * * *
* * * * *
* * * *

Fig. 1 (Puella). Fig. 2 (Rubeus). Fig. 3 (Puer). That is, Fig. 1 is 'Puella,' or 'Mundus facie'; element, water; planet, Venus; sign, Libra.

Fig. 2 is 'Rubeus' or 'Rufus'; element, fire; planet, Mars; sign, Gemini.

Fig. 3 is 'Puer,' or 'Flavus,' or 'Imberbis'; element, fire; planet, Mars; sign, Aries.

Chaucer (or some one else) seems to have confused figures 1 and 3, or Puer with Puella; for Puella was dedicated to Venus. Rubeus is clearly right, as Mars was the red planet (l. 1747). I first explained this, somewhat more fully, in The Academy, March 2, 1889.

2049. From Tes. vii. 38:--'E tal ricetto edificato avea Mulcibero _sottil_ colla sua arte.'--Kölbing, in Engl. Studien, ii. 528.

2056. _Calistopee_ = _Callisto_, a daughter of Lycaon, King of Arcadia, and companion of Diana. See Ovid's Fasti, ii. 153; Gower, Conf. Amantis, ed. Pauli, ii. 336.

2059, 2061. 'Cf. Ovid's Fasti, ii. 153-192; especially 189, 190,

"Signa propinqua micant. Prior est, quam dicimus Arcton,
Arctophylax formam terga sequentis habet."

The nymph Callisto was changed into _Arctos_ or the Great Bear; hence "Vrsa Maior" is written in the margin of E. Hn. Cp. Ln. This was sometimes confused with the other Arctos or Lesser Bear, in which was situate the _lodestar_ or Polestar. Chaucer has followed this error. Callisto's son, Arcas, was changed into Arctophylax or Boötes: here again Chaucer says a _sterre_, when he means a whole constellation; as, perhaps, he does in other passages.'--Chaucer's Astrolabe, ed. Skeat (E. E. T. S.), pp. xlviii, xlix.

2062, 2064. _Dane_ = _Daphne_, a girl beloved by Apollo, and changed into a laurel. See Ovid's Metamorph. i. 450; Gower, Conf. Amantis, ed. Pauli, i. 336; Troilus, iii. 726.

2065. _Attheon_ = _Actaeon_. See Ovid's Metamorph. iii. 138.

2070. _Atthalante_ = _Atalanta_. See Ovid's Metamorph. x. 560; and Troilus, v. 1471.

2074. _nat drawen to memorie_ = not draw to memory, not call to mind.

2079. Cf. 'gawdy greene. _subviridis_'; Prompt. Parv. This _gaudè_ has nothing whatever to do with the E. sb. _gaud_, but answers to F. _gaudé_, the pp. of the verb _gauder_, to dye with weld; from the F. sb. _gaude_, weld. As to _weld_, see my note to The Former Age, 17; in [84] vol. i. p. 540. Littré has an excellent example of the word: 'Les bleus teints en indigo doivent être _gaudés_, et ils deviennent _verts_.'

2086. _thou mayst best_, art best able to help, thou hast most power. Lucina was a title both of Juno and Diana; see Vergil, Ecl. iv. 10.

2112. Here _paramours_ is used adverbially, like _paramour_ in l. 1155. From Le Roman de la Rose, 20984:--'Jamès par amors n'ameroit.'

2115. _benedicite_ is here pronounced as a trisyllable, viz. _ben'cite_. It usually _is_ so, though five syllables in l. 1785. Cf. _benste_ in Towneley Myst. p. 85. Cf. 'What, liveth nat thy lady, _benedicite_!' Troil. i. 780. _Benedicite_ is equivalent to 'thank God,' and was used in saying graces. See Babees Book, pp. 382, 386; and Appendix, p. 9.

2125. This line seems to mean that there is nothing new under the sun.

2129. This is the 're Licurgo' of the Teseide, vi. 14; and the Lycurgus of the Thebaid, iv. 386, and of Homer, Il. vi. 130. But the description of him is partly taken from that of another warrior, Tes. vi. 21, 22. It is worth notice that, in Lydgate's Story of Thebes, pt. iii., king Ligurgus or Licurgus (the name is spelt both ways) is introduced, and Lydgate has the following remark concerning him:--

'And the kingdom, but-if bokes lye,
Of Ligurgus, called was Trace;
And, as I rede _in another place_,
He was the same mighty champion
To Athenes that cam with Palamon
Ayenst his brother (!) that called was Arcite,
Y-led in his chare with foure boles whyte,
Upon his bed a wreth of gold ful fyn.'

The term _brother_ must refer to l. 1147 above. See further, as to Lycurgus, in the note to Leg. Good Women, 2423, in vol. iii. p. 344.

2134. '_kempe heres_, shaggy, rough hairs. Tyrwhitt and subsequent editors have taken for granted that _kempe_ = _kemped_, combed (an impossible equation); but _kempe_ is rather the reverse of this, and instead of smoothly combed, means bristly, rough, or shaggy. In an Early English poem it is said of Nebuchadnezzar that

"Hol_gh_e (hollow) were his y_gh_en anunder (under) _campe hores_."
Early Eng. Alliterative Poems, p. 85, l. 1695.

_Campe hores_ = shaggy hairs (about the eyebrows), and corresponds exactly in form and meaning to _kempe heres_,'--M. See Glossary.

2141. I. e. the nails of the bear were yellow. In Cutts, Scenes and Characters of the Middle Ages, p. 345, the bad guess is hazarded that these 'nails' were metal studs. But Chaucer was doubtless thinking of the tiger's skin described in the Thebaid, vi. 722:--

'Tunc genitus Talao uictori tigrin inanem
Ire iubet, fuluo quae circumfusa nitebat
Margine, et extremes auro mansueuerat _ungues_.'

[85] Lewis translates the last line by:--'The sharpness of the claws was dulled with gold.'

2142. _for-old_, very old. See next note.

2144. _for-blak_ is generally explained as _for blackness_; it means _very black_. Cf. _fordrye_, very dry, in F. 409.

2148. _alaunts_, mastiffs or wolf-hounds. Florio has: '_Alano_, a mastiue dog.' Cotgrave: '_Allan_, a kind of big, strong, thickheaded, and short-snowted dog; the brood where-of came first out of Albania (old Epirus).' Pineda's Span. Dict. gives: '_Alano_, a mastiff dog, particularly a bull dog; also, an _Alan_, one of that nation.' This refers to the tribe of _Alani_, a nation of warlike horsemen, first found in Albania. They afterwards became allies, first of the Huns, and afterwards of the Visi-Goths. It is thus highly probable that _Alaunt_ (in which the _t_ is obviously a later addition) signifies 'an Alanian dog,' which agrees with Cotgrave's explanation. Smith's Classical Dict. derives _Alanus_, said to mean 'mountaineer,' from a Sarmatian word _ala_.

The _alaunt_ is described in the Maister of the Game, c. 16. We there learn they were of all colours, and frequently white with a black spot about the ears.

2152. _Colers of_, having collars of. Some MSS. read _Colerd of_, which I now believe to be right. _Collared_ was an heraldic term, used of greyhounds, &c.; see the New Eng. Dict. This leaves an awkward construction, as _torets_ seems to be governed by _with_. See Launfal, 965, in Ritson, Met. Rom. i. 212. Cf. 'as they (the Jews) were tied up with girdles ... so were they _collared_ about the neck.'--Fuller's Pisgah Sight of Palestine, p. 524, ed. 1869.

_torets_, probably eyes in which rings will turn round, because each eye is a little larger than the thickness of the ring. This appears from Chaucer's Astrolabe, i. 2. 1--'This ring renneth in a maner turet,' i. e. in a kind of eye (vol. iii. p. 178). Warton, in his Hist. E. Poet. ed. 1871, ii. 314, gives several instances. It also meant a small loose ring. Cotgrave gives: '_Touret_, the annulet, or little ring whereby a hawk's lune is fastened unto the jesses.' 'My lityll bagge of blakke ledyr with a cheyne and _toret_ of siluyr'; Bury Wills, ed. Tymms, p. 16. Cf. E. _swivel_-ring.

2156. _Emetrius_ is not mentioned either by Statius or by Boccaccio; cf. Tes. vi. 29, 17, 16, 41.

2158. _diapred_, variegated with flowery or arabesque patterns. See _diaspre_ and _diaspré_ in Godefroy's O. F. Dict.; _diasprus_ and _diasperatus_ in Ducange. In Le Rom. de la Rose, 21205, we find mention of _samis diaprés_, diapered samites.

2160. _cloth of Tars_, 'a kind of silk, said to be the same as in other places is called _Tartarine_ (_tartarinum_), the exact derivation of which appears to be somewhat uncertain.'--Wright. Cf. Piers the Plowman, B. xv. 224, and my note to the same, C. xvii. 299; also _Tartarium_ in Fairholt.

2187. _alle and some_, 'all and singular,' 'one and all.' [86]

2205. See the Teseide, vi. 8; also Our Eng. Home, 22.

2217. _And in hir houre._ 'I cannot better illustrate Chaucer's astrology than by a quotation from the old Kalendrier de Bergiers, edit. 1500, Sign. K. ii. b:--"Qui veult savoir comme bergiers scevent quel planete regne chascune heure du jour et de la nuit, doit savoir la planete du jour qui veult s'enquerir; et la premiere heure temporelle du soleil levant ce jour est pour celluy planete, la seconde heure est pour la planete ensuivant, et la tierce pour l'autre," &c., in the following order: viz. Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Sol, Venus, Mercury, Luna. To apply this doctrine to the present case, the first hour of the Sunday, reckoning from sunrise, belonged to the Sun, the planet of the day; the second to Venus, the third to Mercury, &c.; and continuing this method of allotment, we shall find that the twenty-second hour also belonged to the Sun, and the twenty-third to Venus; so that the hour of Venus really was, as Chaucer says, two hours before the sunrise of the following day. Accordingly, we are told in l. 2271, that the third hour after Palamon set out for the temple of Venus, the Sun rose, and Emily began to go to the temple of Diane. It is not said that this was the hour of Diane, or the Moon, but it really was; for, as we have just seen, the twenty-third hour of Sunday belonging to Venus, the twenty-fourth must be given to Mercury, and the first hour of Monday falls in course to the Moon, the presiding planet of that day. After this, Arcite is described as walking to the temple of Mars, l. 2367, in _the nexte houre of Mars_, that is, the _fourth_ hour of the day. It is necessary to take these words together, for _the nexte houre_, singly, would signify the _second_ hour of the day; but that, according to the rule of rotation mentioned above, belonged to Saturn, as the _third_ did to Jupiter. The _fourth_ was _the nexte houre of Mars_ that occurred after the hour last named.'--Tyrwhitt. Thus Emily is two hours later than Palamon, and Arcite is three hours later than Emily.

2221-64. To be compared with the Teseide, vii. 43-49, and vii. 68.

2224. _Adoun_, Adonis. See Ovid, Met. x. 503.

2233-6. Imitated from Le Rom. de la Rose, 21355-65, q. v.

2238. 'I care not to boast of arms (success in arms).'

2239. _Ne I ne axe_, &c., are to be pronounced as _ni naxe_, &c. So in l. 2630 of this tale, _Ne in_ must be pronounced as _nin_.

2252. _wher I ryde or go_, whether I ride or walk.

2253. _fyres bete_, kindle or light fires. _Bete_ also signifies to mend or make up the fire; see l. 2292.

2271. _The thridde hour inequal._ 'In the astrological system, the day, from sunrise to sunset, and the night, from sunset to sunrise, being each divided into twelve hours, it is plain that the hours of the day and night were never equal except just at the equinoxes. The hours attributed to the planets were of this _unequal_ sort. See Kalendrier de Berg. loc. cit., and our author's treatise on the Astrolabe.'--Tyrwhitt.

2275-360. Cf. the Teseide, vii. 71-92.

2286. _a game_, a pleasure. [87]

2288. _at his large_, at liberty (to speak or to be silent).

2290. 'E coronò di quercia cereale'; Tes. vii. 74. _Cerial_ should be _cerrial_, as spelt by Dryden, who speaks of 'chaplets green of _cerrial_ oak'; Flower and Leaf, 230. It is from _cerreus_, adj. of _cerrus_, also ill-spelt _cerris_, as in the botanical name _Quercus cerris_, the Turkey oak. The cup of the acorn is prickly; see Pliny, bk. xvi. c. 6.

2294. _In Stace of Thebes_, in the Thebaid of Statius, where the reader will _not_ find it. Cf. the Teseide, vii. 72.

2303. _aboughte_, atoned for. _Attheon_, Actaeon; Ovid, Met. iii. 230.

2313. _thre formes._ Diana is called _Diva Triformis_;--in heaven, Luna; on earth, Diana and Lucina, and in hell, Proserpina. See note to l. 2041.

2336. Cf. Statius, Theb. viii. 632:--'Omina cernebam, subitusque intercidit ignis.'

2365. _the nexte waye_, the nearest way. Cf. the Teseide, vii. 93.

2368. _walked is_, has walked. See note to l. 2217.

2371-434. Cf. the Teseide, vii. 23-28, 39-41.

2388. For the story, see Ovid, Met. iv. 171-189; and, in particular, cf. Rom. de la Rose, 14064, where Venus is said to be 'prise et _lacie_.'

2395. _lyves creature_, creature alive, living creature.

2397. See Compl. of Anelida, 182; cf. Compl. to his Lady, 52.

2405. _do_, bring it about, cause it to come to pass.

2422-34. From Tes. vii. 39, 40; there are several verbal resemblances here.--Kölbing.

2437. 'As joyful as the bird is of the bright sun.' So in Piers Pl., B. x. 153. It was a common proverb.

2438-41. Cf. the Teseide, vii. 67.

2443. Cf. 'the olde colde Saturnus'; tr. of Boethius, bk. iv. met. 1.

2447-8. From Le Rom. de la Rose, 13022, q. v.

2449. 'Men may outrun old age, but not outwit (surpass its counsel).' Cf. 'Men may the wyse at-renne, but not at-rede.'--Troilus, iv. 1456.

'For of him (the old man) þu migt leren
Listes and fele þewes,
Þe baldure þu migt ben:
Ne for-lere þu his redes,
For þe elder mon me mai of-riden
Betere þenne of-reden.'

'For of him thou mayest learn
Arts and many good habits,
The bolder thou mayest be.
Despise not thou his counsels,
For one may out-ride the old man
Better than out-wit.'

The Proverbs of Alfred, ed. Morris, in an Old Eng. Miscellany, p. 136. And see Solomon and Saturn, ed. Kemble, p. 253.

2451. _agayn his kynde._ According to the Compost of Ptolemeus, [88] Saturn was influential in producing strife: 'And the children of the sayd Saturne shall be great jangeleres and chyders ... and they will never forgyve tyll they be revenged of theyr quarell.'--Wright.

2454. _My cours._ The course of the planet _Saturn_. This refers to the orbit of Saturn, supposed to be the largest of all, until Uranus and Neptune were discovered.

2455. _more power._ The Compost of Ptolemeus says of Saturn, 'He is mighty of hymself.... It is more than xxx yere or he may ronne his course.... Whan he doth reygne, there is moche debate.'--Wright.

2460. _groyning_, murmuring, discontent; from F. _grogner_. See Rom. Rose, 7049; Troil. i. 349.

2462. 'Terribilia mala operatur Leo cum malis; auget enim eorum malitiam.'--Hermetis Aphorismorum Liber, § 66.

2469.

'Er fyue [gh]er ben folfult, such famyn schal aryse,
þorw flodes and foul weder, fruites schul fayle,
And so seiþ Saturne, and sent vs to warne.'
P. Plowman, A. vii. 309 (B. vi. 325; C. ix. 347).

2491-525. Cf. the Teseide, vii. 95-99.

2504. _Gigginge_, fitting or providing (the shield) with straps. Godefroy gives O. F. _guige_, _guigue_, a strap for hanging a buckler over the shoulder, a handle of a shield. Cotgrave gives the fem. pl. _guiges_, 'the handles of a target or shield.' In Mrs. Palliser's Historic Devices, p. 277, she describes a monument in St. Edmund's chapel, in Westminster Abbey, on which are three shields, each with 'the _guige_ or belt of Bourchier knots formed of straps.' In the M. E. word _gigginge_, both the _g_'s are hard, as in _gig_ (in the sense of a two-wheeled vehicle).

_Layneres lacinge_, lacing of thongs; see Prompt. Parv., s. v. _Lanere_.

In Sir Bevis, ed. Kölbing, p. 134, we find--

'Sir Beues was ful glad, iwis,
Hese _laynerys_ [printed _layuerys_] he took anon,
And fastenyd hys hawberk hym upon.'

2507. Shakespeare seems to have observed this passage; cf. Hen. V. Act 4. prol. 12.

2511. Cf. House of Fame, 1239, 1240:--

'Of hem that maken blody soun
In trumpe, beme, and clarioun.'

Also Tes. viii. 5:--'D'armi, di corni, nacchere e trombette.'

'The _Nakkárah_ or _Naqárah_ was a great kettle-drum, formed like a brazen cauldron, tapering to the bottom, and covered with buffalo-hide, often 3½ or 4 feet in diameter.... The crusades naturalised the word in some form or other in most European languages, but in our own apparently with a transfer of meaning. Wright defines _naker_ as "a cornet or horn of brass," and Chaucer's use seems to countenance this.'--Marco [89] Polo, ed. Yule, i. 303-4; where more is added. But Wright's explanation is a mere guess, and should be rejected. There is no reason for assigning to the word _naker_ any other sense than 'kettle-drum.' Minot (Songs, iv. 80) is explicit:--

'The princes, that war riche on raw,
Gert _nakers_ strike, and trumpes blaw.'

Hence a _naker_ had to be struck, not blown. See also _Naker_ in Halliwell's Dictionary. Boccaccio has the pl. _nacchere_; see above.

2520. _Sparth_, battle-axe; Icel. _sparða_. See Rom. Rose, 5978; Wars of Alexander, ed. Skeat, 1403, 2458; Gawain and Grene Knight, 209; Prompt. Parv. In Trevisa's tr. of Higden, bk. i. ch. 33, we are told that the Norwegians first brought sparths into Ireland. Higden has 'usum securium, qui Anglicè _sparth_ dicitur.'

2537. As to the regulations for tournaments, see Strutt's Sports and Pastimes, bk. iii. c. 1. §§ 16-24; the passages are far too long for quotation. We may, however, compare the following extract, given by Strutt, from MS. Harl. 326. 'All these things donne, thei were embatailed eche ageynste the othir, and the corde drawen before eche partie; and whan the tyme was, the cordes were cutt, and the trumpettes blew up for every man to do his devoir [_duty_]. And for to assertayne the more of the tourney, there was on eche side a stake; and at eche stake two kyngs of armes, with penne, and inke, and paper, to write the names of all them that were yolden, for they shold no more tournay.' And, from MS. Harl. 69, he quotes that--'no one shall bear a sword, pointed knife, mace, or other weapon, except the sword for the tournament.'

2543-93. Cf. the Teseide, vii. 12, 131-2, 12, 14, 100-2, 113-4, 118, 19. In 2544, _shot_ means arrow or crossbow-bolt.

2546. 'Nor short sword having a _biting_ (sharp) point to stab with.'

2565. Cf. Legend of Good Women, 635:--'Up goth the trompe.'

2568. Cf. King Alisaunder, 189, where we are told that a town was similarly decked to receive queen Olimpias with honour. See Weber's note.

2600-24. Cf. the Teseide, viii. 5, 7, 14, 12, &c.

2602. 'In go the spears full firmly into the _rest_,'--i. e. the spears were couched ready for the attack.

'Thai layden here speres in _areeste_,
Togeder thai ronnen as fire of thondere,
That both here launces to-braste;
That they seten, it was grete wonder,
So harde it was that they gan threste;
Tho drowen thai oute here swordes kene,
And smyten togeder by one assente.'
The Sowdone of Babyloyne, l. 1166.

'With spere in thyne _arest_'; Rom. of the Rose, 7561. [90]

2614. _he ... he_ = one ... another. See Historical Outlines of English Accidence, p. 282. Cf. the parallel passage in the Legend of Good Women, 642-8.

2615. _feet._ Some MSS. read _foot_. Tyrwhitt proposed to read _foo_, foe, enemy; but see l. 2550.

2624. _wroght ... wo_, done harm to his opponent.

2626. _Galgopheye._ 'This word is variously written _Colaphey_, _Galgaphey_, _Galapey_. There was a town called _Galapha_ in Mauritania Tingitana, upon the river Malva (Cellar. Geog. Ant. v. ii. p. 935), which perhaps may have given name to the vale here meant.'--Tyrwhitt. But doubtless Chaucer was thinking of the Vale of Gargaphie, where Actæon was turned into a stag:--

'Vallis erat, piceis et acutâ densa cupressu,
Nomine _Gargaphie_, succinctae sacra Dianae.'
Ovid, Met. iii. 155, 156.

2627. Cf. the Teseide, viii. 26.

2634. _Byte_, cleave, cut; cf. the cognate Lat. verb _findere_. See ll. 2546, 2640.

2646. _swerdes lengthe._ Cf.

'And then he bar me sone bi strenkith
Out of my sadel my speres lenkith.'
Ywaine and Gawin, ll. 421, 2.

2675. _Which a_, what a, how great a.

2676-80. Cf. the Teseide, viii. 131, 124-6.

2683. _al his chere_ may mean 'all his delight, as regarded his heart.' The Harl. MS. does _not_ insert _in_ before _his chere_, as Wright would have us believe.

2684. Elles. reads _furie_, as noted; so in the Teseide, ix. 4. This incident is borrowed from Statius, Theb. vi. 495, where Phoebus sends a hellish monster to frighten some horses in a chariot-race. And see Vergil, Æn. xii. 845.

2686-706. Cf. the _Teseide_, ix. 7, 8, 47, 13, 48, 38, 26.

2689. The following is a very remarkable account of a contemporary occurrence, which took place at the time when a parliament was held at Cambridge, A. D. 1388, as told by Walsingham, ed. Riley, ii. 177:--

'Tempore Parliamenti, cum Dominus Thomas Tryvet cum Rege sublimis equitaret ad Regis hospitium, quod fuit apud Bernewelle [Barnwell], dum nimis urget equum calcaribus, equus cadit, et omnia pene interiora sessoris dirumpit [cf. l. 2691]; protelavit tamen vitam in crastinum.' The _saddle-bow_ or _arsoun_ was the 'name given to two curved pieces of wood or metal, one of which was fixed to the front of the saddle, and another behind, to give the rider greater security in his seat'; New Eng. Dict. s. v. _Arson_. Violent collision against the front saddle-bow produced very serious results. Cf. the Teseide, ix. 8--'E 'l forte arcione gli premette il petto.' [91]

2696. 'Then was he cut out of his armour.' I. e. the laces were cut, to spare the patient trouble. Cf. Statius, Theb. viii. 637-641.

2698. _in memorie_, conscious.

2710. _That ... his_, i. e. whose. So _which ... his_, in Troil. ii. 318.

2711. 'As a remedy _for_ other wounds,' &c.

2712, 3. _charmes ... save._ 'It may be observed that the salves, charms, and pharmacies of herbs were the principal remedies of the physician in the age of Chaucer. _Save_ (_salvia_, the herb sage) was considered one of the most universally efficiently medieval remedies.'--Wright. Hence the proverb of the school of Salerno, 'Cur moriatur homo, dum salvia crescit in horto?'

2722. _nis nat but_ = is only. _aventure_, accident.

2725. _O persone_, one person.

2733. _Gree_, preëminence, superiority; lit. rank, or a step; answering to Lat. _gradus_ (not _gratus_). The phrases _to win the gree_, i. e. to get the first place, and _to bear the gree_, i. e. to keep the first place, are still in common use in Scotland. See note to the Allit. Destruction of Troy, ed. Panton and Donaldson, l. 1353, and Jamieson's Dictionary.

2736. _dayes three._ Wright says the period of three days was the usual duration of a feast among our early forefathers. As far back as the seventh century, when Wilfred consecrated his church at Ripon, he held 'magnum convivium trium dierum et noctium, reges cum omni populo laetificantes.'--Eddius, Vit. S. Wilf. c. 17.

2743. This fine passage is certainly imitated from the account of the death of Atys in Statius, Theb. viii. 637-651. I quote ll. 642-651, in which Atys fixes his last gaze upon his bride Ismene; as to ll. 637-641, see note to l. 2696 above.

'Prima uidet, caramque tremens Iocasta uocabat
Ismenen: namque hoc solum moribunda precatur
Uox generi, solum hoc gelidis iam nomen inerrat
Faucibus: exclamant famulae: tollebat in ora
Uirgo manus; tenuit saeuus pudor; attamen ire
Cogitur (indulget summum hoc Iocasta iacenti),
Ostenditque offertque: quater iam morte sub ipsa
Ad nomen uisus, deiectaque fortiter ora
Sustulit: illam unam neglecto lumine coeli
Adspicit, et uultu non exsatiatur amato.'

2745. 'Also when bloude rotteth in anye member, but it be taken out by skill or kinde, it tourneth into venime'; Batman upon Bartholomè, lib. iv. c. 7. _bouk_, paunch; A. S. _b[=u]c_.

2749. 'The vertue Expulsiue is, which expelleth and putteth away that that is vnconuenient and hurtfull to kinde' [nature]; Batman upon Bartholomè, lib. iii. c. 8.

'This vertue [given by the soul to the body] hath three parts; one is called _naturall_, and is in the lyuer: the other is called _vitall_, or [92] _spiritall_, and hath place in the heart; the third is called _Animal_, and hath place in the brayn'; id. c. 14.

'The vertue that is called _Naturalis_ moueth the humours in the body of a beast by the vaines, and hath a principal place in the liuer'; id. c. 12.

2761. _This al and som_, i. e. _this_ (is) _the al and som_, this is the short and long of it. A common expression; cf. F. 1606; Troil. iv. 1193, 1274. With ll. 2761-2808 compare the Teseide, x. 12, 37, 51, 54, 55, 64, 102-3, 60-3, 111-2.

2800. _overcome._ Tyrwhitt reads _overnome_, overtaken, the pp. of _overnimen_; but none of the seven best MSS. have this reading.

2810. The _real_ reason why Chaucer could not here describe the passage of Arcite's soul to heaven is because he had already copied Boccaccio's description, and had used it with respect to the death of Troilus; see Troil. v. 1807-27 (stanzas 7, 8, 9 from the end).

2815. _ther Mars_, &c., where I hope that Mars will, &c.; may Mars, &c.

2822. _swich sorwe_, so great sorrow. The line is defective in the third foot, which consists of a single (accented) syllable.

2827-46. Cf. the Teseide, xi. 8, 7, 9-11, xii. 6.

2853-962. Cf. the Teseide, xi. 13-16, 30, 31, 35, 38, 40, 37, 18, 26-7, 22-5, 21, 27-9, 30, 40-67.

2863-962. The whole of this description should be compared with the funeral rites at the burial of Archemorus, as described in Statius, Thebaid, bk. vi; which Chaucer probably consulted, as well as the imitation of the same in Boccaccio's Teseide. For example, the 'tree-list' in ll. 2921-3 is not a little remarkable. The first list is in Ovid, Met. x. 90-105; with which cf. Vergil, Æn. vi. 180; Lucan, Pharsalia, iii. 440-445. Then we find it in Statius, vi. 98-106. After which, it reappears in Boccaccio, Teseide, xi. 22; in Chaucer, Parl. of Foules, 176; in the present passage; in Tasso, Gier. Lib. iii. 75; and in Spenser, F.Q. i. 1. 8. There is also a list in Le Roman de la Rose, 1338-1368. Again, we may just compare ll. 2951-2955 with the following lines in Lewis's translation of Statius:--

'Around the pile an hundred horsemen ride,
With arms reversed, and compass every side;
They faced the left (for so the rites require);
Bent with the dust, the flames no more aspire.
Thrice, thus disposed, they wheel in circles round
The hallow'd corse: their clashing weapons sound.
Four times their arms a crash tremendous yield,
And female shrieks re-echo through the field.'

Moreover, Statius imitates the whole from Vergil, Æn. xi. 185-196. And Lydgate copies it all from Chaucer in his Sege of Thebes, part 3 (near the end).

2864. _Funeral he myghte al accomplice_ (Elles.); _Funeral he mighte hem all complise_ (Corp., Pet.). The line is defective in the first foot. [93] _Funeral_ is an adjective. Tyrwhitt and Wright insert _Of_ before it, without authority of any kind; see l. 2942.

2874. _White_ gloves were used as mourning at the funeral of an unmarried person; see Brand, Pop. Antiq. ed. Ellis, ii. 283.

2885. 'And surpassing others in weeping came Emily.'

2891. See the description of old English funerals in Rock, Church of our Fathers, ii. 488: 'If the deceased was a knight, his helmet, shield, sword, and coat-armour were each carried by some near kinsman, or by a herald clad in his blazoned tabard'; &c.

2895. Cf. 'deux ars Turquois,' i. e. two Turkish bows; Rom. de la Rose, 913; see vol. i. p. 132.

2903. Compare the mention of 'blake clothes' in l. 2884. When 'master Machyll, altherman, was bered, all the chyrche [was] hangyd with blake and armes [coats-of-arms], and the strett [street] with blake and armes, and the place'; &c.--Machyn's Diary (Camden Soc.) p. 171.

2923. _whippeltree_ (better _wippeltree_) is the cornel-tree or dogwood (_Cornus sanguinea_); the same as the Mid. Low G. _wipel-bom_, the cornel. Cf. '_wepe_, or _weype_, the dog-tree'; Hexham. See N. and Q. 7 S. vi. 434.

2928. _Amadrides_; i. e. _Hamadryades_; see Ovid, Met. i. 192, 193, 690. The idea is taken from Statius, Theb. vi. 110-113.

2943. _men made the fyr_ (Hn., Cm.); _maad was the fire_ (Corp., Pet.).

2953. _loud_ (Elles.); _heih_ (Harl.); _bowe_ (Corp.).

2958. 'Chaucer seems to have confounded the _wake-plays_ of his own time with the funeral games of the antients.'--Tyrwhitt. Cf. Troil. v. 304; and see 'Funeral Entertainments' in Brand's Popular Antiquities.

2962. _in no disioynt_, with no disadvantage. Cf. Verg. Æn. iii. 281.

2967-86. Cf. the _Teseide_, xii. 3-5.

2968. Lounsbury (Studies in Chaucer, i. 345) proposes to put a full stop at the end of this line, after _teres_; and to put _no_ stop at the end of l. 2969.

2991-3. _that faire cheyne of love._ This sentiment is taken from Boethius, lib. ii. met. 8: 'þat þe world with stable feith / varieth acordable chaungynges // þat the contraryos qualite of elementz holden amonge hem self aliaunce perdurable / þat phebus the sonne with his goldene chariet / bryngeth forth the rosene day / þat the mone hath commaundement ouer the nyhtes // whiche nyhtes hesperus the euesterre hat[h] browt // þat þe se gredy to flowen constreyneth with a certeyn ende hise floodes / so þat it is nat l[e]ueful to strechche hise brode termes or bowndes vpon the erthes // þat is to seyn to couere alle the erthe // Al this a-cordaunce of thinges is bownden with looue / þat gouerneth erthe and see and hath also commaundementz to the heuenes / and yif this looue slakede the brydelis / alle thinges þat now louen hem togederes / wolden maken a batayle contynuely and stryuen to fordoon the fasoun of this worlde / the which they now leden in acordable feith by fayre moeuynges // this looue halt to-gideres peoples ioygned with an hooly bond / and knytteth sacrement of [94] maryages of chaste looues // And love enditeth lawes to trewe felawes // O weleful weere mankynde / yif thilke loue þat gouerneth heuene gouerned[e] yowre corages.'--Chaucer's Boethius, ed. Morris, p. 62; cf. also pp. 87, 143. (See the same passage in vol. ii. p. 50; cf. pp. 73, 122.) And cf. the Teseide, ix. 51; Homer, II. viii. 19. Also Rom. de la Rose, 16988:--

'La bele chaéne dorée
Qui les quatre elemens enlace.'

2994. What follows is taken from Boethius, lib. iv. pr. 6: 'þe engendrynge of alle þinges, quod she, and alle þe progressiouns of muuable nature, and alle þat moeueþ in any manere, takiþ hys causes, hys ordre, and hys formes, of þe stablenesse of þe deuyne þou[gh]t; [and thilke deuyne thowht] þat is yset and put in þe toure, þat is to seyne in þe hey[gh]t of þe simplicite of god, stablisiþ many manere gyses to þinges þat ben to don.'--Chaucer's Boethius, ed. Morris, p. 134. (See the same passage in vol. ii. p. 115).

3005. Chaucer again is indebted to Boethius, lib. iii. pr. 10, for what follows: 'For al þing þat is cleped inperfit, is proued inperfit by þe amenusynge of perfeccioun, or of þing þat is perfit; and her-of comeþ it, þat in euery þing general, yif þat þat men seen any þing þat is inperfit, certys in þilke general þer mot ben somme þing þat is perfit. For yif so be þat perfeccioun is don awey, men may nat þinke nor seye fro whennes þilke þing is þat is cleped inperfit. For þe nature of þinges ne token nat her bygynnyng of þinges amenused and inperfit; but it procediþ of þingus þat ben al hool and absolut, and descendeþ so doune into outerest þinges and into þingus empty and wiþoute fruyt; but, as I haue shewed a litel her-byforne, þat yif þer be a blisfulnesse þat be frele and vein and inperfit, þer may no man doute þat þer nys som blisfulnesse þat is sad, stedfast, and perfit.'--Chaucer (as above), p. 89. (See the same passage in vol. ii. pp. 74, 75.)

3013. 'And thilke same ordre neweth ayein alle thinges growyng and fallyng adoune by semblables progressiouns of seedes and of sexes.'--Chaucer's Boethius, ed. Morris, p. 137. (See the same passage in vol. ii. p. 117; i. e. in bk. iv. pr. 6. l. 103).

3016. _seen at ye_, see at a glance. Gower, ed. Pauli, i. 33, has:--'The thing so open is at theye,' i. e. is so open at the eye, is so obvious. 'Now is the tyme _sen at eye_,' i. e. clearly seen; Coventry Myst. p. 122.

3017-68. Cf. the Teseide, xii. 7-10, 6, 11, 13, 9, 12-17, 19.

3042. So in Troilus, iv. 1586: 'Thus maketh vertu of necessite'; and in Squire's Tale, pt. ii. l. 247 (Group F, l. 593): 'That I made vertu of necessite.' It is from Le Roman de la Rose, 14217:--

'S'il ne fait de necessité
Vertu.'

So in Matt. Paris, ed. Luard, i. 20. Cf. Horace, Carm. i. 24:--

'Durum! sed leuius fit patientia
Quidquid corrigere est nefas.'

[95]

3068. Cf.

'The time renneth toward right fast,
Joy cometh after whan the sorrow is past.'
Hawes' Pastime of Pleasure, ed. Wright, p. 148.

3089. _oghte to passen right_, should surpass mere equity or justice.

3094-102. Cf. the Teseide, xii. 69, 72, 83.

3105. Cf. Book of the Duchesse, 1287-97.

THE MILLER'S PROLOGUE.

The Miller's name is _Robin_ (l. 3129).

3110. The reading _companye_ (as in old editions and Tyrwhitt) in place of _route_ makes the line too long.

3115. I. e. the bag is unbuckled, the budget is opened; as when a packman displays his wares. See Group I, l. 26.

3119. _To quyte with_, to requite the Knight with, for his excellent Tale. This position of _with_, next its verb, is the almost invariable M. E. idiom. Cf. F. 471, 641, C. 345; Notes to P. Pl., C. i. 133, &c.

3120. 'Very drunk, and all pale'; cf. A. 4150, H. 30.

3124. I. e. in a loud, commanding voice, such as that of Pilate in the Mystery Plays. In the Chester Plays, Pilate is of rather a meek disposition; but in the York Plays, pp. 270, 307, 320, he is represented as boastful and tyrannical, as is evidently here intended. The expression seems to have been proverbial. Palsgrave has: 'In a pylates voyce, _a haulte voyx_'; p. 837. Udall, tr. of Erasmus' Apophthegms (repr. 1877), last page, has--'speaking out of measure loude and high, and altogether in _Pilates voice_.'

3125. _by armes_, i. e. by the arms of Christ; see note to C. 651.

3129. 'My dear brother'; a common form; cf. 3848, below, and 1136, above.

3131. _thriftily_, i. e. profitably, to a useful purpose; cf. B. 1165.

3134. _a devel wey_, in the devil's name; see Skelton, ed. Dyce, ii. 287; originally, in the way to the devil, with all ill luck. Compare--

'Hundred, chapitle, court, and shire,
Al hit goth _a devel way_' [to the bad].
Polit. Songs, ed. Wright, Camd. Soc. p. 254.

See note to l. 3713 below.

3140. _Wyte it_, lay the blame for it upon. _of Southwerk_, i. e. of the Tabard inn.

3143. 'Made a fool of the wright,' i. e. of the carpenter; cf. A. 586, 614; also A. 3911, and the note.

3145. The Reeve interferes, because he was a carpenter himself (A. 614). 'Let alone your ignorant drunken ribaldry.'

3152. A reference to a proverbial expression which is given in Rob. of Brunne's Handlyng Synne, 1892:--

'Men sey, ther a man ys gelous,
That "ther ys a kokewolde at hous."'

[96]

Compare also Le Roman de la Rose, 9167-9171, which expresses a similar opinion.

3155-6. Tyrwhitt omits these two lines in his text, but admits, in his Notes, that they should have been inserted. The former of the two lines is repeated from l. 277 of the original (but rejected) Prologue to the Legend of Good Women. _but-if thou madde_, unless thou art going mad.

3161. _oon_, one, i. e. a cuckold; or, possibly, an ox (l. 3159). As an ox was a 'horned' animal, it comes to the same thing, according to the miserable jest so common in our dramatists.

3165. _goddes foyson_, sufficient abundance, i. e. all he wants, all the affection he expects. _there_, in his wife.

3166. A defective line; read--Of | the rém' | nant, &c.

THE MILLERES TALE.

On the Miller's Tale, see _Anglia_, i. 38, ii. 135, vii (appendix), 81; and see the remarks in vol. iii. p. 395.

3188. _gnof_, churl, lit. a thief; a slang word, of Hebrew origin; Heb. _gan[=a]v_, a thief, Exod. xxii. 1. The same as the mod. E. _gonoph_, the epithet applied to Jo in Dickens, Bleak House, ch. xix. Halliwell's Dict. quotes from The Norfolke Furies, 1623--'The country _gnoffes_, Hob, Dick, and Hick, With clubbes and clouted shoon,' &c. Drant, in his tr. of Horace, _Satires_, fol. A i, back (1566), has:--'The chubbyshe _gnof_ that toyles and moyles.' Todd, in his Illustration of Chaucer, p. 260, says--'See A Comment upon the Miller's Tale and the Wife of Bath, 12mo. Lond. 1665, p. 8, [where we find] "A rich _gnofe_; a rich grub, or miserable caitiff, as I render it; which interpretation, to be proper and significant, I gather by the sence of that antient metre:

The caitiff _gnof_ sed to his crue,
My meney is many, my incomes but few.

This, as I conceive, explains the author's meaning; which seems no less seconded by that antient English bard:

That _gnof_, that grub, of pesants blude,
Had store of goud, yet did no gude."'

The note in Bell's Chaucer, connecting it with _oaf_, is wrong. The carpenter's name was John (l. 3501).

3190. This shews that students used often to live in lodgings, as is so common at Cambridge, where the number of students far exceeds the number of college-rooms.

3192, 3. Chaucer himself knew something of astrology, as shewn by his numerous references to it. The word _conclusions_ in l. 3193 is the technical name for 'propositions' or problems. In his Treatise on the Astrolabe, prologue (l. 9), he says to his son Lowis--'I purpose to teche thee a certein nombre of _conclusions_ apertening to the same [97] instrument.' We here learn that one object of astrology was to answer questions relating to coming weather, as well as with reference to almost every other future event.

3195. _in certein houres._ In astrology, much depended on times; certain times were supposed to be more favourable than others for obtaining solutions of problems. The great book for prognostications of weather was the _Calendrier des Bergiers_, an English version of which was frequently reprinted as The Shepheards Kalendar. The old almanacks also predicted the weather; see Ben Jonson's Every Man Out of his Humour, A. i. sc. 1--'Enter _Sordido_, with an almanack in his hand.'

3199. _hende_, gracious, mild; hence, gentle, courteous; orig. near at hand, hence, useful, serviceable; A. S. _gehende_. Ill spelt _hendy_ in Tyrwhitt. Several passages from this Tale are quoted and illustrated by Warton, Hist. E. Poetry, sect. xvi; which see.

3203. _hostelrye_, lodging. Nicholas had his room to himself; whereas it was usual for two or more students to have a room in common, even in college.

3207. _cetewale_, zedoary; but commonly, though improperly, applied to valerian (_Valeriana pyrenaica_); also spelt _setwall_. Gerarde, in his Herball (ed. 1597, p. 919), says that 'it hath beene had (and is to this day among the poore people of our northerne parts) in such veneration amongst them, that no brothes, pottages, or phisicall meates are woorthe anything, if _setwall_ were not at one end'; &c. See Britten's Plant-Names (E. D. S.). See note to B. 1950.

3208. _Almageste_; Arab. _almajist[=i]_; from _al_, the, and _majist[=i]_, for Gk. [Greek: megistê];, short for [Greek: megistê suntaxis], 'greatest composition,' a name given to the great astronomical treatise of Ptolemy; hence extended to signify, as here, a text-book on astrology. See Hallam, Middle Ages, c. i. 77. Ptolemy's work 'was in thirteen books. He also wrote four books of judicial astrology. He was an Egyptian astrologist, and flourished under Marcus Antoninus.'--Warton. See D. 182, 325, 2289. And see my note to Chaucer's Astrolabe, i. 17; vol. iii. p. 354.

3209. See Chaucer's own treatise on The Astrolabe, which he describes. It was an instrument consisting of several flat circular brass plates, with two revolving pointers, used for taking altitudes, and other astronomical purposes.

_longinge for_, suitable for, belonging to.

3210. _augrim-stones_, counters for calculation. _Augrim_ is _algorism_ (see New Eng. Dict.), or the Arabic system of arithmetic, performed with the Arabic numerals, which became known in Europe from translations of a work on algebra by the Arab mathematician Abu Ja'far Mohammed Ben Musa, surnamed _al-Khow[=a]razm[=i]_, or the native of Khw[=a]razm (Khiva). Chaucer speaks of 'nombres in _augrim_'; Astrolabe, i. 9. 3.

3212. _falding_, a kind of coarse cloth; see note on A. 391.

3216. _Angelus ad virginem._ This hymn occurs in MS. Arundel [98] 248, leaf 154, written about 1260, both in Latin and English, and with musical notes. It is printed, with a facsimile of part of the MS., at p. 695 of the print of MS. Harl. 7334, issued by the Chaucer Society. The first verse of the Latin version runs thus:--

'Angelus ad uirginem subintrans in conclaue,
Virginis formidinem demulcens, inquit "Aue!
Aue! regina uirginum celi terreque dominum
concipies et paries intacta,
salutem hominum tu, porta celi facta,
medela criminum."'

Hence the subject of the anthem is the Annunciation.

3217. _the kinges note_, the name of some tune or song. There is nothing to identify it with a _chant royal_, described by Warton, Hist. E. Poet. ii. 221, note b. Warton says that 'Chaucer calls the _chant royal_ ... a _kingis note_.' But Chaucer says '_THE kinges note_,' which makes all the difference; it is merely a bad guess. A song entitled 'Kyng villyamis note,' or 'King William's note,' is mentioned in the Complaint of Scotland (1549), ed. Murray, p. 64.

3220. 'According to the money provided by his friends and his own income.'